You Can Do It, You Can Do It

March 17, 2003

Motivational suggestions can help you jump-start your business

By: Marc Mancini

Once you’re in this business, it’s so easy to cut corners, to
get into a rut, to let things slide. So here are some motivational
resolutions you can take to re-ignite your business creativity,
jump-start your sales momentum and stay ahead of the curve.

Read a newspaper and/or national news magazine regularly. Such
publications often shed light on developing trends, summarize
important surveys and help trigger new, cutting-edge ideas that
address what’s happening now the kinds of things that might have a
direct relationship to your future business strategies.

Read one trade magazine, like TravelAge West, thoroughly and
skim the others. And don’t let those magazines pile up on your
desk, so that you find out about important information a
month-and-a-half after it happens. Try to not let a magazine linger
in that pile more than a week.

When you travel, keep an “insider’s secrets” notebook with you.
When you visit something wonderful that not many people know about
(e.g., Philadelphia’s Barnes Foundation museum), write it down.

You’ll be surprised at how handy and impactful such information
can be to future sales.

Go to at least one national travel conference per year. It’s at
such conferences that you can be exposed to nationally prominent
leaders, who sometimes reveal critical bits of information in their
speeches.

It’s also a great place to get an “extension school” -like
education from its training presenters.

Revisit your key resources. They have so much more than we
remember. For example, as often as you use the Hotel & Travel
Index, do you realize it contains info on fam rates and commission
policies for certain lodging chains, a grid for city-to-city flying
times and access to information in the Weissmann Travel
Reports?

Enroll in a certification program. Preferable would be a
comprehensive training package, like those offered by CLIA or ICTA,
but you should also consider those from destination marketing
organizations, like the Ke Kula O Hawaii program, or a
supplier-sponsored one, like Marriott’s Hotel Excellence or Holland
America’s Academy.

They’ll expand your knowledge and help you communicate extra
credibility to your clients.